twistedgenes.com

The BLOG has moved

2008-10-13T04:12:00.000-07:00

Hello Reader,

Thanks for your interest in this blog.

The blog has moved to its independent location twistedgenes.com on 12th Oct 2008.

See you there (redirecting ......).

Virtual Machine on Fedora

2008-10-09T11:26:00.000-07:00

Fedora comes with a virtual machine manager( similar to vmware products) which enables you to create a virtual machine and run various other operating system. I tried installing Windows XP on a virtual machine created using virt-manager in my Fedora. Key steps to begin ..

- Make sure libvirtd demon is running
- Allocate the space as per your needs viz hard disk, RAM etc
- This one is the key step, do not forget to add a cdrom (/dev/hdc) pointning to iso image of Windows XP Disc, as after the first boot, XP installation searches for the Windows XP disk and it cannot read the host's CDROM.

Everything goes on smooth with all these parameters.

SELinux, Apache and Postgres SQL Connectivity

2008-09-25T11:31:00.000-07:00

Recently, I decided to migrate the work from Apache windows to the Apache running on my Vmware fedora machine. Everything was supposed to work like a charm. Unfortunately, it did not. The perl in the cgi-bin directory was throwing internal server error 500. The apache error log indicated 'permission denied to create a socket', 'premature end of the script headers'. The stuff was supposed to be retrieved from postgres sql database by the perl thingy. It appeared to me that database server is not allowing my IP address to establish a connection, as recomended by pgadmin as well. After a successful entry of my IP in the conf file of postgres database server, problem still persisted. I tried almost everything, changing the file owner to apache, suexec in apache and hell lots of other possibilities. Then in the trial process I noticed a small pop up in the corner of the window, SELinux denial. SELinux is an enhanced feature in Linux, that can put restrictions on your applications in apache making database connection, nmap, access to network filesystem and lots and lots more. After giving apache persmission to make database connections, the error was resolved and application ran smoothly.

SQUID Proxy Server Authenticated Mode

2008-09-21T12:45:00.000-07:00

We run a squid proxy server at our two system network at home :) in unauthenticated mode. I was just going through the squid logs at /var/logs/squid/access.log, and I saw few miscreant IPs eating up my network bandwith by using our proxy server. Then, I decided to tune up the authentication mode for squid proxy server. Squid doesn't have its authentication module and we need to us LDAP,PAM or NCSA. I came accross NCSA based authentication at http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-unix-squid-proxy-server-authentication.html. Given below. It worked very well in our case.

Configure an NCSA-style username and password authentication

I am going to assume that squid is installed and working fine.

Tip: Before going further, test basic Squid functionality. Make sure squid is functioning without requiring authorization :)
Step # 1: Create a username/password

First create a NCSA password file using htpasswd command. htpasswd is used to create and update the flat-files used to store usernames and password for basic authentication of squid users.
# htpasswd /etc/squid/passwd user1
Output:

New password:
Re-type new password:
Adding password for user user1

Make sure squid can read passwd file:
# chmod o+r /etc/squid/passwd
Step # 2: Locate nsca_auth authentication helper

Usually nsca_auth is located at /usr/lib/squid/ncsa_auth. You can find out location using rpm (Redhat,CentOS,Fedora) or dpkg (Debian and Ubuntu) command:
# dpkg -L squid | grep ncsa_auth
Output:

/usr/lib/squid/ncsa_auth

If you are using RHEL/CentOS/Fedora Core or RPM based distro try:
# rpm -ql squid | grep ncsa_auth
Output:

/usr/lib/squid/ncsa_auth

Step # 3: Configure nsca_auth for squid proxy authentication

Now open /etc/squid/squid.conf file
# vi /etc/squid/squid.conf
Append (or modify) following configration directive:
auth_param basic program /usr/lib/squid/ncsa_auth /etc/squid/passwd
auth_param basic children 5
auth_param basic realm Squid proxy-caching web server
auth_param basic credentialsttl 2 hours
auth_param basic casesensitive off

Also find out your ACL section and append/modify
acl ncsa_users proxy_auth REQUIRED
http_access allow ncsa_users
Make sure that you do not have any other http_access statement.
Save and close the file.

Where,

* auth_param basic program /usr/lib/squid/ncsa_auth /etc/squid/passwd : Specify squid password file and helper program location
* auth_param basic children 5 : The number of authenticator processes to spawn.
* auth_param basic realm Squid proxy-caching web server : Part of the text the user will see when prompted their username and password
* auth_param basic credentialsttl 2 hours : Specifies how long squid assumes an externally validated username:password pair is valid for - in other words how often the helper program is called for that user with password prompt. It is set to 2 hours.
* auth_param basic casesensitive off : Specifies if usernames are case sensitive. It can be on or off only
* acl ncsa_users proxy_auth REQUIRED : The REQURIED term means that any authenticated user will match the ACL named ncsa_users
* http_access allow ncsa_users : Allow proxy access only if user is successfully authenticated.

Restart squid:
# /etc/init.d/squid restart

Vaccum kills us, space kills javascript

2008-09-16T02:40:00.000-07:00

I was exporting certain attributes viz roadname, ids, ways etc which were of alphanumeric type by appending them with a '+' charachter from my server side perl program to the javascript program at the client. The firebug popped up, unterminated string literal, lets see whats that .... Googling did not turned out to be of much help. I tried making the string short, taking into an array etc. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it did not. Amazed, I came to a stupid conclusion on the size of the arguments that need to be passed. Perhaps, that was not the cause.On of my appended field was having a space, and string thereafter was considered as a different argument by javascript. Due to mismatch in the number of arguments for that js function, it was breaking. Such a silly mistake !!! :).

Hence, Vaccum kills us, space kills javascript or rather any function in any damn
language.

Firebug, turned out to be a real bug

2008-09-09T11:42:00.000-07:00

Firebug, an addon for the popular web browser firefox became a pain in the a** once at work. It helps you to monitor HTTP request - response, Web Design layout etc. We were trying to make certain changes in our javascript file and review the changes. Clear the private data ( Ctrl-Shift-Delete), restart the browser, we tried almost everything . Later on after breaking head for sometime, we found out that firebug maintains its own cache of all the images, js and other component files being loaded that needs to be cleared in the console and the net tabs.
So folks, if you use firebug with firefox , better be watchful else keep scratching your head. :)

Beers and Bananas

2008-09-09T11:19:00.000-07:00

Elephants and Coffee, sounds absurd. But they have named it. The coffee shop at one of Business Incubation hotel has it. The combination makes any sense, off course, not at all. And so does beers and bananas. But this weird combination has a story behind it. I was returning home on my friend's bike from the office and it started to rain heavily. To our respite, we halted at a petrol pump to save us from getting drenched. God showed no mercy and the rain did not stop. A distance of 17km back home, could not make us gain the courage to move ahead in the rain.
No other option left, the rain doesn't seemed halt, we started. My friend thought of grabbing a beer, to beat the chilling rain's effect. While he was drinking his beer, I too kinda felt hungry and saw huge bananas hanging in a panwalas shop. He too liked the idea of having a banana along with beer and relish the same. The unusual combo of beer and bananas thus came into the picture. And did I forgot to add that before that we had hogged sev puri(an indian spicy snack) and maza(a mango juice brand) as well just after leaving the office.

Last Day @First Company .. few last words

2008-08-20T05:10:00.000-07:00

The last day at my first job, few noticeable last words.

Delivery Manager : All the best, come back to $%$^% !

HR ( at exit interview ) : Had you told this in the interview, you could have asserted even to the head of the company, that I will work only with that profile. (It's a good learning, you have full rights to claim what was promised to you in the interview)

Security Guard (at final exit, I don't have the ID card, but the relieving letter)

(me) : I have the relieving letter

(sg) : Ok. That's fine. But it's my duty, show the letter. (Opens up the letter and takes a glance). Kisi acchi jagah ja rahe honge (you must be going to some good working place)

(me) : Yes. Kaam accha hoga wahan (Work will be good there)

(sg) : Laughs. Waise mujhe kehna to nahin chaiye, ^&^&%& aane se pehle main bhi sochta tha yahan bahut accha kaam hota hai ( Before joining here as security, I had an impression that work is great at this company, all because of the big name)

(me) : India main naam bade and darshan chote ( Bigger and branded name, but the work profile is low )

(sg) : Bilkul sahi (That's perfect)

My first job, excitement turned otherwise !

2008-08-20T04:39:00.000-07:00

17th June 2006 :
No. 72. Rakesh Gupta
No. 73. ..... and so on.
Hurray ! I was floating on cloud nine . I had made in to the company . The on campus drive at my college hyped as arduous process had been a cake walk for me. The faculty member read loud the list of the students who had made in. Celebrations were inevitable .

24th September 2006 :
Hey, did you collect the offer letter ? No, have they come? Cool. Having an offer letter in your hands of a big shot MNC, with a year more still left to complete your engineering degree, sounds fantastic. I had made my mind, I will join it. Become a fundoo coder shoder !! All things seemed to be so perfect. My future path was decided. But, I failed to realise that heavenly signal. As they say in literature, when you desire something, universe conspires to let you have the best. But, I was blinded by the charm and glamor and was not able to see that I had something better to achieve.

10th May 2007 - 25th June 2007:
Desperate wait for the receiving the joining letter at the company. As the history says, it should be something in the middle of June. Perhaps, this was one of the firsts of heavenly signal which I failed to realise. The signal that I am destined for something better and I should seek or continue with some other opportunity.

1st July 2007:
For the first time on the college's history, a database giant had arrived interviewing our batch. The coll was over and everyone was relaxing at home. But the offering and name of the database giant tempted everyone to rush back to the campus from even their remotest abodes and try their knowledge and luck. The selection process was strenuous and I was pleased to make into top 18 out of the 500 people appeared. But unfortunately, they needed only 12 folks. Hence, had a narrow setback. I was disappointed, but this was another heavenly indicator that destiny has something else in store for me and I should realize my potential.

10th July 2007:
The joining date of the company came(23rd July). As expected, it was in their huge training campus. I had mixed feelings. But, I had made my mind and was careless to hunt for any other opportunities.

17th July 2007:
The company had altered the joining date and location to 6th August, to a place where I had never been too. Perhaps, this was the biggest heavenly indicator. Again, I could not sense it. What could I do ? I was not seeing things beyond joining this company, which eventually turned out to be a big mistake of my life. I have been avid passionate about Java and Open Source technologies since my college days. With an expectation of getting similar kind of work/training, I joined the company at the new location

6th August 2007:
Lush green campus and huge glassy buildings, good enough to dupe anyone. I was joyous. The training process started and things went on smoothly. Till one fine day, we had the catastrophic event .... MAINFRAMES, yes your batch has been identified for the mainframes stream. Happy hunting folks, Its gonna be a wonderful time. Man, I was shattered, I never desired to study those outdated legacy systems. The company was not willing to cater to your personal interests.

10th October 2007:
I started pumping my resume like anything. I wanted to get out and do anything but not mainframes. Ill-fated, nothing much happened. Only ray of hope was to complete training and expect to get a different technology project. Chances are meager, but you never now.

1st Feb 2008:
After successful completion of training, off to production. Seems, a whole new world is going to start. Fortunately, I managed to sneak into a non mainframe project after persuading one of the managers at the company. New energy and enthusiasm started to reverberate again in me.

10th April 2008:
All that glitters is not gold. I could perfectly understand that. This one was the biggest and best heavenly indicators, you need to work hard, you are destined for something else. Now I started feeling it hard. The project, they call it support and maintenance barely requires you to be smart, logically and technically sound. There was nothing much crucial I was playing. It started striking me that I am losing, losing rapidly; everything, my knowledge, my analytical and logical skills. What would my future be ? A dumb box. Oh no ! I won't let that happen. Job hunt began with more fierce efforts. I needed to move out. No kidding this time. It's a high priority to give justice to my career life.

15th July 2008:
Filed the resignation, a sense of relief or moksha.

20th August 2008:
I walkout like a free bird. With lesser apprehensions about my next venture.

Summary : Always listen to your heart and understand those heavenly signals, because if you have an intent desire and willingness for something, then universe will definitely conspire and let you get the best. And in DJ (Rang De Basanti) style, I would say Zindagi jeene ke do hi tarike hote hain, ek kisi Indian IT company join kar lo, aur jeete raho, appraisal ki cycle chalne do, doosra, jimmedaari uthao ise badalne ki aur startup join karo :)

GIMP - Cartoon Effect

2008-08-09T08:42:00.001-07:00

Step 1 : Copy the background layer ( Dialogs -> Layers -> Duplicate Layer [duplicate layer is the button on the bottom with the two sheets of paper] )

Step 2 : Gaussian Blur top layer ( Filters -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur [I use 8 px ] )

Step 3 : Divide Layers ( Go to your Layers Dialog and under the Mode drop list select Divide )

Step 4 : Flatten Image ( Layer -> Merge Down )

Step 5 : Apply Cartoon filter ( Go to Filters -> Artistic -> Cartoon and play with the settings till you are happy with the preview, then hit OK )

One thing that makes cartoon drawings stand out from other drawings is the heavy use of black lines. Every wall, all the items in a room are given dark black outlines in a cartoon.

IITs today do more harm than good

2008-08-07T06:22:00.000-07:00

My response to the news IITs today do more harm than good ( click to read )

I strongly contradict the whole scenario. Coaching institutes drill your brain and enhance your logical and analytical capabilities. I felt my learning and analytical capability enhanced after joining a coaching institute in Kota. IITs are lacking in faculty and unable to impart proper education . Consequently, they are blaming coaching institutes to hide their fallacies. They are most elegant institutes of the country, can't they conduct an examination to extract the raw intelligence from whole bunch of students appearing.

There is no such magical formula or key which coaching institutes give. They just boost you way of learning and approaching problem. Which I feel is far better than normal schooling and makes a student sharper. Which is larger, 1-2 year at a coaching institute or 4 years at IIT. The IITs have lost charm and ambiance to instigate a successful engineer and are transferring blame on others. It's ridiculous.

Also you would like to read ( click to read )

Error while loading shared libraries: libx264.so.56: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

2008-07-05T04:06:00.000-07:00

I recently ran an upgrade on my Fedora core box. All the library files got upgraded . Unfortunately, VLC player which used to run normal stopped working .

The error thrown was 'vlc:error while loading shared libraries: libx264.so.56: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory'.

What I discovered is that the file libx264.so.56 had updated to libx264.so.60. Hence, I created a soft link ln -s libx264.so.60 libx264.so.56 . This solved the issue. And VLC runs file now.

Draw a Circle in Java, the fundamental "pixels" way !

2008-06-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

The following code draws a circle of particular diameter by setting the PIXELS falling inside the circle to a different RGB value. It involves simple co-ordinate geometry fundas. There are some approximations being taken.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

import java.awt.image.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.JComponent.*;

public class circles extends JFrame {
public static void main(String args[]) {
double d=Double.parseDouble(args[0]);
int diameter= (int)d;
circles ca= new circles();
ca.drawCircle(diameter);
}
public void drawCircle(int diameter) {
int x=0,y=0,radius;
JFrame frame=new JFrame();
JLabel lab;
BufferedImage bi=new BufferedImage (diameter,diameter,BufferedImage.TYPE_BYTE_GRAY );
WritableRaster raster=bi.getRaster();
double [] iPix=new double [diameter*diameter];
if(diameter%2 == 1) {
diameter-=1;
}
radius=diameter/2;
for(int i=0;i<(radius)) { x-=radius; } if(y>(radius)){
y=y%(radius);
}
else
{
y-=radius;
y=-y;
}
if((x*x+y*y)<=((radius)*(radius))) { iPix[i]=255; } else { iPix[i]=0; } }
raster.setPixels(0,0,diameter,diameter,iPix); lab=new JLabel(new ImageIcon(bi)); frame.add(lab);
frame.setVisible(true); frame.setSize(600,600);
}
}
_______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________

compile the program as javac circles.java

run as java circles diameter_value

e.g. java circles 500

Swap two numbers without a '=' operator

2008-06-11T10:36:00.000-07:00

Came across an interesting problem of swapping two numbers without using '=' operator. I thought of this approach. It's little lengthy and can be modified I guess.
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

#include
static int counter;
int main()
{
int a,b;
printf("Enter two numbers");
scanf("%d%d",&a,&b);

if(a>b)
{
switch ((a-b)%2)
{
case 0 :while((a-b))
{
counter++;
a--;
b++;
}
while (counter >0)
{
counter--;
a--;
b++;
}
printf("\nThe swapped set : %d\t%d",a,b);
break;
case 1 :while((a-b-1))
{
counter++;
a--;
b++;
}
counter++;
while (counter >0)
{
counter--;
a--;
b++;
}
printf("\nThe swapped set : %d\t%d",a,b);
break;
}
}

else
{
switch ((b-a)%2)
{
case 0 :while((b-a))
{
counter++;
a++;
b--;
}
while (counter >0)
{
counter--;
a++;
b--;
}
printf("\nThe swapped set : %d\t%d",a,b);
break;
case 1 :while((b-a-1))
{
counter++;
a++;
b--;
}
counter++;
while (counter >0)
{
counter--;
a++;
b--;
}
printf("\nThe swapped set : %d\t%d",a,b);
break;
}
}
return 0;
}

____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

Corporate Etiquette

2008-05-29T12:16:00.000-07:00

Peter and Adam happen to be colleagues of a well esteemed organization on the globe. After having a wonderful lunch both were going to their cubicles.

Peter : Hey man, rush, press the button, the lift is about to close
( The lift door was about to close. Two middle aged people were having serious conversation in the lift, lets call them Mr. Sam and Mr. Duke )

Peter : Cool. We are in
( Adam managed to press the button, just a second before the doors were going to be an inch apart)

Mr. Sam : So whats up with that guy ...

Mr Duke : Seems his mother has some health issues ... he needs to be posted in that city

Mr Sam ( shouted to his peak) : Bullshit !!! .
Peter and Adam astonished .....

Adam : I thought that company stresses a lot on corporate etiquette. What about the management lessons.

Peter : Leave that dude. What if the case is authentic ...

A sweet infatuation .....

2008-05-11T11:20:00.000-07:00

It all started in the Biotech labs. Where you are supposed to keep those biological stuffs, measuring nano in sizes in small tubes called eppondorfs for high speed circular motions, they call it centrifugation . This is a very time consuming activity and you get a lot of leisure time to chill out. She used to hit me with her notebook, and I used to chase her with a feeling of sweet vengeance.This notoriety gained pace and I started developing a liking for her. I was getting captivated.

The semester was on the verge of the end and as a requirement of the course, we had to do an industrial training to get industrial exposure. Me and gang got hold of a Research company offering this industrial training stuff with a deal of money. The company was situated in the nearby happening city of Bangalore.The girl had her abode in the same city. Unfortunately, she was not in our gang list. Quite predictable, I wanted her to be in the gang. I played a trick. She was hunting for training stuff in the same city, but couldn't manage to find a good one.

I told her about our Research company, and welcomed her to join us. As it was an easy game, pay and get the certificate. She decided to explore all options, keeping this one open. My pal convinced her about the advantages and ease of doing there. Fortune rocked and she popped up  in the gang.

Jackpot was hit when I realized that her residence in the city was at a walk away distance from where we stayed . It came to my delight. Opportunities to hang out and spend more time with her, know each other enhanced. Had wonderful excursions an outings with her and the gang in the city of gardens, Bangalore. I started developing a love for the city, probably because of this reason.

Three years have passed. We have moved our own ways.And as I blog, the rain drops splash the window of the bus, crawling and struggling hard across the water logged Hosur road. After a hectic day of mundane work this rain and melodious song of James Blunt (1973), brought a nostalgic feeling.

Determining IP address for eth0 failed

2008-04-22T11:19:00.001-07:00

I had a tough time configuring wired internet connection on UBUNTU (7.10 Gusty Gibbon) and FEDORA Core 8 boxes. However after few amendments, I was able to fix and start internet in both. The Network Adapter (eth0) was not able to take IP address from the DHCP servers of my ISP ( Reliance, the case here) because the Linux distros support the future i.e. IPv6. Hence, the task at hand was to disable IPv6 and enable IPv4.

Let us discuss both of them in detail.

Ubuntu

There is process avahi-demon running which is responsible for IPv6 assignment. It can be disabled by removing from the following location
/etc/init.d/avahi-demon. Please not that all these should be done as sudo.
This should be able to fix the problem. You can restart the network and network interfaces by

/etc/init.d/networking restart
ifdown eth0
ifup eth0

Also, the interfaces file specifies starting of Network adapter and assigning address.
cd /etc/Network/interface

It should have following entry to take IP from dhcp server for eth0.

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

Forcibly , IP address can be assigned by dhclient eth0.

Fedora Core

Disabling IPv6 in Fedora core 8 can also be done in similar fashion.

Now here is how you can do this with FC8 to disable IPv6:

Append the following line to /etc/modprobe.conf:
install ipv6 /bin/truealias net-pf-10 off
alias ipv6 off
Append the following line to /etc/sysconfig/network:
NETWORKING_IPV6=no
Ensure your network adapter is configured not to use IPv6. This is an easy edit in the system-config-network gui, or do it manually in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 (ammend for name of your adapter) by appending IPV6INIT=no

To restart the Network Adapter and assign address using DHCP.
ifconfig eth0 down
ifconfig eth0 up
dhclient eth0

After all these changes are made the network adapter takes an IPv4 IP address and works fine.

The Bangalore Elevated Highway

2008-03-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

To lessen the traffic on Hosur Road Bangalore, an Elevated highway project was started and is reaching its completion . Here are some of the pics during construction phase. Lets see the positive outcome this 10K.M stretch of road has in for the office goers .

Save Resources, Save the planet !!

2007-12-16T08:50:00.000-08:00

These gigantic malls attract everyone's eyes. And one loves to hang out in these malls. But have your ever thought the amount of power being consumed in keeping it so flashy and attractive. With power resources deteriorating, CO2 emissions shooting up and depleting ozone layer, a thought has become essential. Nobody wants to see earth die before he/she dies. How many of us are aware that CO2 is also emitted from the monitors ( be it traditional or LCD). And we never care to keep those monitor turned off or rather shutdown the PCs when not in use. Watching more black colors on monitors, black backgrounds reduces the watts of power being consumed. An initiative with thought can be seen at www.blackle.com. Go green, save resources, save the planet and eventually save yourself.

the 'EXTINCTION' effect ! A hilarious one .....

2007-10-14T02:39:00.000-07:00

I happen to be a regular watcher of the resident evil movie series. Recently, I decided to download and see the latest one, 'Extinction'. As a precautionary mesaure, I ran the download from a direct link on two different systems in two separate labs, say lab1 and lab2.

The lab1 download was started earlier than lab2. I locked both the accounts and went out. After I came back in night the movie was downloaded on lab1's PC and decided to watch. People in lab2 usually play Counter Strike on LAN with mute mode to avoid any problem.

Fully excited, I started the movie in lab1 and counter strike was started in lab2. After some time I get a message from a guy in lab2, unlock your system Resident Evil has started on that. Ha ha ha. I ran the download in play mode. The speaker wasnt muted either. The sound effects of counter strike matches to that of Resident Evil.

Hilarious Outburst :-D

2007-09-30T02:29:00.000-07:00

We had a birthday party in one of the popular restaurants of the city. We were around 16 people. One of the girls, was excited to the cloud nine and wanted to pose for a snap wiith a gold flake ciggarette in her hand.Obviously, most of the girls do not fag. And she too belonged to the same category.

The restaurant waiters were too quick and smart in the services. Guess what happened ???

The girl was posing with the ciggarette in hand for the photo.A waiter popped in and kept an ash tray in front of her, before the snap could be taken. The whole party folks bursted into laughter and waiter received a special pat for that.

Relations ' how long they last '

2007-09-13T11:40:00.000-07:00

Relations here I am going to talk are friendly relations and not the love relations. What i have learnt from my experiences is that "more higher and deeper a particular relation goes , more badly it collapses".

Mild and moderate relations are found to run smooth and for a comaparatvely longer duration of time.

Highly intense relations at time have a selfish motive or a misunderstanding associated with it.There can be many stupid reasons also associated with a deep relation like sexual attraction as a simple case.

Blood relations are an exception, they are defined by destiny and a binding force leads to their sustenance by default for a longer duration. Creed, caste, proximity also governs relations to a great extent.

Sleep Tight

2007-09-11T11:18:00.000-07:00

I literally scared the shit out of my roommate yestserday night while I shouted all of a sudden in my sleep. Although, I dont remember anything about this, unless he told me today morning. :) :) :)

Some theories suggest that such phenomena are outcome of depression and anxiety that revolves around your mind during sleep. It is believed to be associated with the daily routine life. I dont know what was hovering on mind that night . he he

Beware of me !!!!! he he he ......

The "TRIO"

2007-09-10T06:39:00.000-07:00

The trio on their mundane life were returning back to home. The work schedule was tring as usual and thought of having Gobi Manchurian in dinner was making the wait for cab restless.
After a little wait they managed to get a shared cab. The trio barged in with intense energy.
A (on cloud nine) : " Maine kaha tha na .. Aaj cab se jayenge , bus se nahin " .
B(bursts into laughter): yup rite.
C:I am thinking about Gobi yaar.

The conversation was at its peak and the journey of 15 minutes passed in a flash of minute. They got down and started moving. the cab moved away.

A ( anxiously): Shit ! where is my celphone.

Before A could utter another word, B started running in the direction of the cab. C calls up A's number. Fortunately, the call was lifted by the cab's driver and the guy turned out to be honest enough and asked them to move and collect the celphone. He had stopped the cab and was waiting. B managed to catch up with the cab and retrieve the celphone.

A Narrow Escape ( based on real story)

2007-07-08T09:11:00.000-07:00

On a soggy evening of the rainy season, passengers are confined under the shelter of the Bhopal railway station. Trains are passing on their regular timings, despite heavy rainfall. Mohan*, Shyam* and Rohit* are waiting at the station for the train bound to the south(Kerala Express) .They are joined by their friends Amit* and Sonu*. Rohit's friend Manish* came to see him off. The group of five is ready to have a rocketing trip in the train.

Rohit did not have Mohan's new celphone number. Mohan gets a miss call on his number, and makes a move to the STD PCO center to make a call."Give me a miss call, when the train is about to reach, I will rush back", Mohan said, as he moved away to the STD PCO center. The gang busy in its talk, failed to notice his low voice. Mohan moved away. The correct time of arrival of the train is 9:35 PM. Its around 8:55 PM.

Vendors are shouting high to sell their products. A train bound to different place moves towards the platform. Mohan busy with his talk at STD PCO gets a miss call on his celphone.Thinking it as a reminder call from the gang, he assumes that this train is theirs and gets into it. He failed to notice the train details or see the whole gang sitting on the platform.The train starts moving. "Is it the train bound to Chennai", Mohan asked a passeneger inside the train. "No, its just going till Chattisgarh only", passeneger replied surprisingly. Mohan feared that he has entered the wrong train. He either needs to pull the chain or jump. He preferred the latter method. The train had moved out of the platform and the barren ground had started. Owing to the slippery surface, Mohan's jump turned out lethal and he hit a hard rock with his left knee. The cargo trousers were fully torned. Its around 9:15 PM in night.

With his rickety walk, Mohan moved towards the platform 1, where he had left his gang of friends. Mohan said, "Yaar thodi chot lag gayi thi... koi baat nahin. I will manage". Everyone was baffled by his torn half trousers on the left leg. Before anyone could speak or figure out anything, Shyam took him in search of medical facility on the station. The wound was deep enough to expose piece of flesh.There was no medical faicility available at the railway station and hence SHyam took him to the nearby hospital in an auto.

The clock hit 9:25PM. Just 10 minutes left before the arrival of train. Shyam called up Rohit and said to try pulling the chain in case they are not able to make it to the station on time. Rohit and Amit rushed to the station master's office to seek some help. Unfortunately, he was not there. Train arrived. Shyam talked to the Ticket Collecter Officer and he discouraged the step of pulling the chain."Hum kuch help nahin kar sakte, chain kheechoge to jail main daal denge", ticket collector replied in a harsh tone. Meanwhile, Manish escorted Sonu in stuffing everyone's luggage in the coach. Their coach was aound ten boggies behind the main central location In case, Shyam and Mohan are not able to return within 5 minutes, the will have to cancel the trip.

The gong of the train striked. Shyam, still on call with Rohit said just two minutes we will be right inside the station. Sonu and Manish at a far location in the backside of train were in a confused sate whether to move the luggage out of the train or let it be inside.Train started catching up pace. Rohit and Amit rushing with the train, unable to decide what to do. They could now see Shaym and bandaged Mohan rushing towards the train. As they got inside the moving train, Rohit and Amit also moved inside. Immediately, Rohit called up Sonu who is with the luggage many boggies behind to be seated. Mohan had got around six stitches for his wound.
Thus they were able to make inside the train by a very narrow margin.

* ORIGINAL NAMES CHANGED TO HIDE IDENTITY